How Bingo Has Changed Over the Years

 

Bingo is an incredibly popular game which seems to have gone from strength to strength. The stereotype I have of bingo went from blue rinsed old ladies playing in a cold bingo hall to the modern woman playing online at home but how true are these stereotypes? This article will investigate the truth behind bingo and how it has really changed over the years.

Lets start from the beginning. The earliest recording of the word bingo was way back in the sixteenth century, 1530 to be precise. A bingo style game called Lo Giucco del Lotto D'Italia was played every Saturday in Italy. Furthermore, its also interesting to note that every Saturday in Italy now the lottery is still played! Like every game, it has changed and matured over time so when it arrived in France in 1778 the cards and tokens had been added to the game as well as the aspect of reading out numbers aloud. In those days the game was known as Le Lotto and was played by the upper classes.

Le Lotto then took an educational turn as it as introduced to Germany in the nineteenth century. The Germans utilised the numerical aspect of the game to teach multiplication tables. It wasn't until the twentieth century when the game came from Europe to America that the version we now know as bingo came into creation and its popularity dramatically increased. There were two major players which led to this popularity increase, Hugh Ward and Edwin Lowe. Ward took the game to be played at Carnivals in the Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania areas, he was even the one that actually copyrighted the word bingo and brought out an official rule book. So how does Edwin Lowe come into it? Well, Lowe was a toy manufacturer which might explain why he saw the true potential of bingo and popularised it further. First Lowe tested the game on people he knew, as they enjoyed it he went on to sell the game.

When did bingo become more than just a board game? Apparently, Lowe was approached by the church to see if bingo could be used to raise charitable funds. As the result was successful and as time progressed, the game grew ever more popular. In the later half of the twentieth century actual Bingo Halls (locations where people would get together and pay to play) emerged all over Britain and the game itself was formalised by the Gaming Act.

With the rise of technology and online casinos it was inevitable that bingo would also become popular online. Nowadays more and more people are playing online and there is an abundance of choice when it comes to selecting a place to play.